All this happened, more or less.

Contributions to US colleges and universities rose $800m last year, to $24.4bn, led by Harvard and Stanford with more than $500m each, the New York-based Council for Aid to Education reported yesterday.

The donations amounted to an increase of 3.4 % for all colleges and universities for the year that ended June 30 2004. After adjusting for inflation, the increase amounted to only 0.7%.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,1429545,00.html

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"Fewer and fewer students are pursuing science and engineering. While immigrants are taking up the slack in many areas, defense laboratories and industries generally require American citizenship or permanent residency. So a crisis is looming, unless careers in science and engineering suddenly become hugely popular, said Robert J. Barker, an Air Force program manager who approved the grant. And what better way to get a lot of young people interested in science than by producing movies and television shows that depict scientists in flattering ways?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/movies/04flyb.html?ex=1280808000&en=b35c2085878bcf51&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss